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Woman Loses Business, Dogs In Fire

COVINGTON TOWNSHIP — A longtime landmark restaurant in Lackawanna County went up in flames early Wednesday morning. The place has survived more than 30 ye...

COVINGTON TOWNSHIP -- A longtime landmark restaurant in Lackawanna County went up in flames early Wednesday morning. The place has survived more than 30 years in business and a few different owners.

The current owner of Jaque's Place near Moscow says fire still won't close her restaurant.

About fifteen volunteer fire companies from all over Lackawanna County joined Covington Township firefighters at a very familiar address on Route 435 outside Moscow.

"Everybody knows where it is and everybody knows what it is so it takes its toll on a small community, not only for the owners but for the community and the township itself," said Covington Township Fire Chief Brad Jones.

We talked to Chief Jones hours after the fire, but only minutes after he finally returned to the station.

Dozens of firefighters took on the flames at Jaque's Place restaurant.

A state police fire marshal later said it was a piece of kitchen equipment that sparked and sent flames going up the walls into an upstairs apartment.

No people were hurt, but two of the owner's dogs were killed while firefighters worked well into the morning.

"We were probably fighting fire, heavy fire, for about four hours," Chief Jones said.

Folks say the place has been a restaurant since at least the early 1970s and most people still call it by its old name, Fox and Hound. It's been Jaque's place for the last few years and the new owner says she hopes to rebuild if the insurance money comes through.

The owner didn't want to talk to us on camera, but said if all goes well, this restaurant's days are not over.

That came as good news to many of her loyal customers, who said both the Fox and Hound and Jaque's Place were local landmarks.

"It's always sad to see a local place go, because very few of them rebuild and then it's a big change,” said Fredrick Ceccacci of Madisonville.

"It is, it's very sad, and it's just a matter of whether or not they'll be able to rebuild it and restore it, you know?" asked C.J. Smith of Madisonville.

The owner of Jaque's Place says she doesn't know if she will have to start from scratch. It will take some time to see how much damage the fire left.

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